Community action and activities in Newton Abbot & surrounding areas…

Teign Energy Communities

Teign Energy Communities (TECs)

TECs now has its own website, so please refer to this for up-to-date information.

VISION

To achieve the widest possible community engagement with energy use and energy generation. We want people in the local area to become more aware of, and engaged with their use of energy , so that energy becomes as familiar as money.

We will do this by setting up a Community Benefit Society (CBS). This will identify , deliver, own and run Renewable Energy installations. The Society will also generate an income for projects to benefit the whole community.

OPERATIONAL STRATEGY

Teign Energy Communities (TECs), the umbrella CBS, will provide the financial and legal framework for organisations within Teignbridge to deliver their local Renewable Energy and Energy Saving projects. These local organisations may be community groups, social enterprises, health/education trusts, councils, businesses and any group that signs up to the vision, aims and objectives of the CBS.

TECs will raise funds through public/private share offers to cover costs of Renewable Energy projects proposed by local organisations. Such projects will be assessed by the CBS to ensure they meet the vision, aims and objectives as well as being financially and ecologically viable. Appropriate commercial agreements with these organisations for Renewable technologies will be negotiated to achieve an equitable profit sharing arrangement.

After costs, payments of social dividends and repayment of capital, profits (community fund) will be used to deliver the long term vision of the CBS. This delivery will primarily be undertaken by the local organisations participating in this initiative, paid for in whole or part, by the community fund.

COLLABORATIONS

Our initial partners in setting up TECs are Templer Acadamy Schools Trust (TAST), Teign Housing and the Avenue Church in Newton Abbot. We have the support of Teignbridge District Council for this initial pahse who have given the go-ahead for to consider one of their sites.

We are in discussions with NE Dartmoor Community Land Trust and Greener Teign about shared involvement in TECs. Other Teignbridge Transition/Climate Action groups have expressed their support for this initiative.

TIMETABLE

The initiative was launched by TNA CIC in November 2014. Seed funding was secured (15th Dec, for £4,000 from DCC) to implement phase-1 of the project due to complete by mid 2015.

With support from RegenSW, Teign Housing, Templer Academy Schools Trust, The Avenue Church and Teignbridge District Council, we are now finalising phase-1 deliverables. These include registering the CBS and applying for a further £20k grant to assess installations, set up legal agreements and launch a share offer.

Our plan is to have a first pilot installation started by end of 2015.

HOW CAN YOU BE INVOLVED?

Running a Community Energy organisation along the lines envisaged will require a mix of paid and voluntary roles. Starting with a board of directors we’ll need people to run the organisation day-to-day.

Another major part of the operation will be the supply-chain to deliver Renewable. We have started investigating working with organisations such as the Carbon Savings Alliance, a not-for-profit organisation working to support social housing landlords and councils. We are exploring several other options for local installers of renewable technologies, in particular rooftop and car park PV of ~50kWpk installations.

We’d love to hear from people with the following expertise and skills:

legal; financial

share option scheme; crowd and other sources of funding

social media and website design and management

writing grant applications

setting up and running a CBS

secretarial and admin

reading documents and giving feedback

There are two paid roles identified for the next phase, if you are interested in starting this on a voluntry basis in phase-1, please get in touch:

Communications Coordinator

Supply Chain Management & Coordination

Our sponsors for this phase are:

Helen Chessum for the Steering Group

postie >> Postie@transitionnewtonabbot.org.uk

Fuad >> FuadAltawil@onetel.com

Our first collaboration is with Teign School. Our very first community-owned installation will be going in on FEB 12th 2016. HURRAY! It really is something to celebrate , CHEERS!

TECs Support Forum is made up of local people with a range of skills . We are very keen to support TECs , it’s always good to have more people invovled. There is scope for web-site data entry, managing the newsletter and database, press releases and flyers, making contacts on behalf of TECs, organsing events and much more.

What do we want to achieve?

We want everyone in our local area to become more aware and engaged with their use of energy, so energy becomes as familiar to people as money. If you share our vision and would like to get invovled then please click below for more detailed info on the initaitive. There is a list of areas where we need people plus specific skills and expertise we would welcome

How are we doing so far?

The Tecs website is up and running please go to www.teignenergycommunities.co.uk and have a look . Feedback always welcome.

Our first collaboration is with Teign School. Our very first community-owned installation will be going in on FEB 12th 2016. HURRAY! It really is something to celebrate .